News / Blog

Meet the CALL Artists

01.30.2014

Nichole DeMent

Program Manager

Marita Dingus. photo: Nancy Levine

Last Fall, four Washington State artists were selected by a panel of experts working with Artist Trust to participate in the Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) Program. Based on their lifetime of artistic achievement, these artists were selected to receive assistance with archiving and documenting their work. Artist Trust-trained Legacy Specialists are helping these artists with sorting, organizing and digitizing their work through June 2014.

Marita Dingus is an artist based in Auburn. She creates figures, baskets and images from discarded materials, and her art can be found in many museums including the permanent collection of the Seattle Art Museum. As a CALL Artist, Marita needed assistance creating records that would begin to build her archive. She partnered with Legacy Specialist Esther Ervin for assistance. Together, they are working to identify artworks that left the artist’s studio prior to being documented and are working towards creating a comprehensive archive and take on technology challenges.

Anne Hirondelle works out of her studio in Port Townsend, creating sculptural vessels, sculptures, and drawings that have been exhibited nationally. Her pieces are in numerous private and public collections including the White House and Stanford University. While Anne has compiled a large body of work, and she has much of it documented, the time has come to move from paper files and 35mm slide images to digitized images and files. With the assistance of her Legacy Specialist, Ann Welch, she has started to digitize her images and broaden her technology skills. Together, the team has created a plan to help Anne archive her work and preserve her artistic legacy.

Lisa Telford weaves baskets, hats, and traditional clothing, as well as some nontraditional corsets from the bark of red and yellow cedar trees. She employs the materials and techniques of the traditional Haida weavers of British Columbia, of which she’s a descendent. Her creations can be seen in the collections of The Oregon Historical Society, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and The Burke Museum, among others. Lisa’s challenge for the CALL Program is to organize and digitally photograph her work, as well as utilize her growing technology skills for the CALL Database. She has worked with Legacy Specialists Julia Lowther and Edith Sehulster and feels her legacy will be complete when other people understand her medium and use weaving for their own expressive needs.

Jim Woodring’s cartoons and graphic illustrations display exceptional technical skill and surreal story lines. His work is exhibited internationally and he has received multiple awards from Artist Trust. While Jim’s records are fairly well organized, he needed an updated database that could archive thousands of images of his work. He also needed assistance in understanding how to take advantage of technology for his digital files and better utilize photographic equipment. CALL Legacy Specialists Carole d’Inverno and Carolyn Dunford teamed together to help. With a plan to move forward, Jim and the Legacy Specialists are on their way toward establishing a comprehensive digital archive of Jim’s images easily accessible via the CALL Database.

The Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) Program is generously supported through 2014 by the Joan Mitchell Foundation as part of a national effort focused on archiving and documentation for visual artists.